Season Five's Continuity And Beating An Undead Pony · 8:17am Jul 5th, 2015
I probably should have made this post a long time ago, probably after the season premiere, but a lot of things have happened in season five. Some of which has made Beating An Undead Pony look prophetic. I didn't plan on guessing events from season five, I just wanted to write a story. Plain and simple. Other things mean I contradicted canon. Unavoidable since I am still writing as the season is airing. Of course the very premise of the undead isn't exactly something that would happen in the show. Sure we've been surprised by adult-oriented content they were willing to elude to but I think the premise of the story is a bit much. But that' snot what we're here to talk about. We're here to look back elements of season five, and how they relate to Beating An Undead Pony, starting with the first and most obvious.....
The premiere gave us this, a magic map that emerges from the center of the throne room when the Mane Six and Spike are present, and exists to direct them to a place with a friendship problem. I typically go into the series blind, not knowing about the animatics that were shown at Comic Con, so I wasn't aware of the map until after I came up with a similar map. Sure the one in Beating An Undead Pony doesn't direct our heroes to places, they decide that on their own after a discussion, and Twilight was shown summoning the map herself. Sorry to say it's a bit late to change it now. The way I saw it the map in my story was secondary in my thought process, the discussion of where in Equestria our heroes should travel being more important, so why not have a holographic map of Equestria in the throne room? But the map isn't the only thing from the premiere that made me raise an eyebrow....
An isolated town full of indoctrinated ponies under a despotic leader who ends up capturing the Mane Six and attempts to force them to follow her way of thinking. Of course that's a very general synopsis of what happens both in the premiere and chapters Six through Ten, with a lot of fundamental differences. Starlight Glimmer wanted to keep ponies under her control because of her ideas of how equality is her preferred way of life, while Cherry Jubilee in my story did not want to be alone, and would force ponies to stay with their lives on the line. A bit far, but I when I started, I didn't want to have any OC's, and I needed a character who would fit the story best, as explained in one of my QandA's.
Which leads us to Starlight Glimmer herself and the Equal Ponies. Again, I am afraid they will not be making an appearance in the story. As much as I would like to use Starlight and show off how Our Town has faired in the zombie apocalypse, but because none was established when the story began, their fate will have to go unanswered. Moving on, Castle Sweet Castle doesn't really have anything that says I contradicted or did something suspiciously similar to, so skip to....
Bloom and Gloom, which gave us Babs Seed getting her cutie mark off screen. While I did intend to have Babs appear in the story, I had no plans involving her cutie mark. As far as I see it, the circumstances that lead to her getting her cutie mark, what ever they were, could still have happened, but for convenience sake I decided to just not call attention to it. If you want to imagine she has her cutie mark go ahead, it doesn't really factor into anything for the time being.
Next up is something minor, but I feel the need to bring it up. Tanks For the Memories gave us focus for Tank that we really hadn't seen since his introduction. Focus that hasn't really come up in the story. Not a big deal, just thought I mention it, since Tank hasn't made an appearance yet. Appleloosa's Most Wanted doesn't have much to talk about, so instead lets move on to...
Make New Friends But Keep Discord. This episode gave us two characters two new characters that everyone seems to like. Treehugger and The Smooze. The later would be hard for me to include, if only because of what it's very nature. Sure, it's more benign than the lovecraftian horror that was the original Smooze, but it's still just as dangerous, being immune to magic and able to grow after eating anything shiny. I can't even imagine a zombie could even be a threat to this creature. But there's another wrinkle. Treehugger. She may have been introduced in season five, but she and Fluttershy met, albeit offscreen, during season four. So whether or not this means she can be used in Beating An Undead Pony or not is something I've still been trying to decide. Let me know what you think. And on the topic of old friends...
The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone gave us Rainbow Dash and Gilda reconciling. When Gilda made her appearance in Beating An Undead Pony I was aiming for some kind of resolution. Not perfect, but at least make their relationship less antagonistic. I also felt Pinkie should play a part, and be open to the idea of Gilda being friends with Rainbow once more. Not to unlike what happened in the episode. Obviously Gilda didn't slash Pinkie's throat in the show, but the general idea was still there. Not intentional of course, I didn't know DHX's plans for these characters. Speaking of which....
Where do I even begin with Slice of Life? The Doctor being an absent minded professor not unlike Doc Brown, Derpy being able to speak, Bon Bon being a secret agent, Cranky and Matilda's wedding. Uhh. Ok lets start with The Doctor and Derpy. These two knowing each other is nothing new to this fan base, Doctor and Assistant exists for a reason after all. But when it came to characterizing these two in my story, I decided to make The Doctor's esoteric nature, a bit more vague. And good thing to because as far as the canon depiction of this character is concerned, the only hint he's a time lord is mentioning he's been studying science for centuries, which seems like a long time for a regular pony. But what about Derpy? Well being an innocent, well mannered, if not completely there, pony means there isn't much in the way of contradictions. With one major exception. The fact that Derpy doesn't talk in Beating An Undead Pony. Little bit of trivia, when I was writing the second chapter of the story, Depry originally had lines, but because of how she was handled in Rainbow Falls I decided to be more "true to canon" and just have her not say anything, as such all of her lines ended up going to Roseluck. Well that backfired, because not only was Derpy given a voice, a far more appropriate voice to the one given to her in The Last Roundup if you ask me, but the role of "pony who doesn't speak" ended up going to a different character....
Everyone's favorite pony DJ, Vinyl Scratch. I don't want to spoil anything, but this I'm afraid is another point where I'm going to have to branch away from what the show established, since the plans I do have for Vinyl, require her to speak.
Then there's these two. Really their relationship in the show and my story doesn't have a lot in the way of me contradicting canon. Though I got to say, the show's repeated use of Lyra and Bon Bon calling each other "friends", while being very flirty with each other, and Lyra's repeated use of the word as well in the most recent chapter, was a total coincidence. I was planning on having Lyra describe their relationship as friends, despite it obviously being much more than that, even before I saw the episode. And as an aside, the word "friend" may have been thrown around a lot in the episode, but who are we kidding, Lyra and Bon Bon are "Friends" much in the same way Sailor Neptune and Uranus are "Cousins". Now Bon Bon being a secret agent......well that came pretty far out of nowhere for me. I suppose the fact she has been less inclined to panic in Beating An Undead Pony than Lyra means I am kind of on the right track. I just had no idea I was on the track to begin with. There was one thing I that did throw me off though....
The framing device for Slice of Life Cranky and Matilda's wedding. The decision to have them ask Pinkie to be a surrogate mother for their child was planned long before the announcement for season five, having been part of my plans for Pinkie from the beginning. However as time went on, and the chapters releases started slipping, I realized the episode was going to be released before the chapter where this fact was revealed would be on line. I doubt any of you would have accused me of jumping on some kind of band wagon, or accuse me of lying about planning their proposition to Pinkie in advance, but I still felt the need that this revelation had to come before Slice of Life aired. If any of you who read the story felt Pinkie crying over the issue as she explained it to Spike seemed rushed, that's only because it was put in a chapter early. Finally moving on from this popular episode, my story doesn't have too much overlap with the events of Princess Spike so instead lets briefly touch upon....
The Yaks of Yakyakistan from Party Pooped. I know the Yaks themselves are a topic not everyone agrees about, but really I don't have much to say. Like the introduction of Griffonstone, I really can't account for it's fate in the story. So believe what you will about how the Yaks are handling the zombie apocalypse. Although there is one thing I have to comment on...
If you look at Pinkie's journey to Yakyakistan in the episode, and the fact she traveled from Ponyville, to Dodge Junction, to Manehatten, and to The Crystal Empire before reaching Yakyakistan. Which means she started going in the opposite direction since Dodge Junction is to the south, then headed east to the coast before her and the Beatles got back on track, all in the same day. If you want to count this as an error or Pinkie just being Pinkie is entirely up to you. And finally....
There's the most recent episode, Amending Fences. As far as the retcon is concerned regarding Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, and Lyra appearing in Canterlot and Ponyville at various times, it actually helps me a lot. It means I didn't contradict anything. However like with Treehugger, I'm left wondering something. Moondancer was mentioned way back in the first episode, though hasn't made an appearance until now. Does that give me the freedom to have her make an appearance? Would she even be the same Moondancer as seen in the show because of the radical shift between the events of season four and the story. Once again, I ask you how this should be handled.
Whew. This was a lot longer than I thought it would be. My own fault for not doing this when the season began, gradually going as the season and Beating An Undead Pony progressed. But that's the funny thing about writing fan fiction about a series that is still going on. You never know what might happen.
Don't worry about it. Fanfics are already an alternate continuity. Keep as close or as far from canon as you want with it and be happy. The Zombie Ponypocalypse will continue on.